Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill say investors have a role in rising oil prices, pointing out that speculation in crude futures has nearly doubled since 2000.
Pension funds, Wall Street banks and other large investors that have no intention of taking delivery of fuel have increasingly pumped money into contracts for oil and other commodities as [...]

Oil prices rose after Saudi Arabia’s modest production increase failed to push traders to sell.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $1.38 to settle at $136.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Retail gas prices inched lower overnight but appear unlikely to change much as long as oil prices remain stuck in their recent [...]

Arlington Tankers Ltd., which ships crude oil and petroleum products, is exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale or the purchase of another company.
Jefferies & Co. as its financial adviser in the process.
Arlington shares rose 1 cent to $23.50 in afternoon trading.

Oil futures rebounded on concerns about the Middle East and growing doubt that China’s government will be able to curb the country’s appetite for fuel by pushing prices higher.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $2.69 to settle at $134.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, recovering some of the $4.75 that the [...]

Oil prices dropped sharply after China said it will raise fuel prices, a move that could dampen its booming oil consumption.
Crude-oil prices also were given a downward push by the Iraqi Oil Ministry’s announcement that it is close to signing oil service deals with several major Western oil companies in an effort to boost crude [...]

Venezuela’s state oil company wants to increase crude production by nearly 8 percent this year.
Petroleos de Venezuela SA says it hopes to produce more than 3.4 million barrels per day.
State oil company vice president Luis Vierma says the company is investing some $15 million this year — up 50 percent from 2007.
Vierma says that Venezuela [...]

Crude-oil inventories fell last week for the fifth straight week, while gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly dropped.
For the week ended June 13, crude-oil inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels, or 0.4 percent, to 301 million barrels — 14.2 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts expected a larger draw [...]

Oil prices settled higher, rebounding from earlier losses on reports that Nigerian oil workers are about to strike, and investors focused on a surprise decline in gasoline inventories last week.
Retail gas prices slipped slightly for a second day, a sign that falling demand may be affecting prices and that prices at the pump may have [...]

Tesoro Corp. will reevaluate its hedging strategies in light of energy market volatility and expects second-quarter earnings to be $125 million lower as a result.
In addition, the refiner estimated per-barrel operating expenses will increase by 30 to 50 cents because of higher energy costs.
Tesoro said it typically hedged less than twenty percent of its crude [...]

Federal regulators will place stricter limits on foreign exchanges that trade U.S. oil.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will require the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange to adopt position limits used in the U.S. for trading West Texas Intermediary crude contracts.
Foreign officials also will share daily trading data with U.S. authorities and report violations when they [...]